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Mike Tomasky and Matt Yglesias both argue that Alabama head coach Nick Saban showed a distinct lack of class by scoring a meaningless touchdown with 47 seconds left in last night’s championship game.

Almost to a man, their commenters vehemently disagree. And they’re right to do so.

I’m an Alabama alumnus and fan, so I’m biased. But having the backup running back score on a run up the middle with nearly a minute left in a national championship game you’re only leading by 10 points isn’t exactly rubbing it in.

Indeed, one need only to look at the beginning of the game to see why: Texas had already scored twice in roughly a minute.

This wasn’t the local high school powerhouse up against a weakling school from across town. Or even Steve Spurrier running and gunning when he’s up 40 points against some Division II school. It’s a run up the middle against the second best team in the country with the national championship on the line.

And, frankly, Alabama had already come perilously close to giving away a game they had wrapped up by playing ridiculously conservatively. Alabama’s offense essentially sat out the second half, playing not to lose rather than to win. That allowed Texas and their freshman quarterback to find a rhythm and come back to within a field goal with 6:15 left in the game.

It took a dynamic play on defense to end the Longhorn’s momentum and take the game back. A fumble recovery after a hard-hitting sack gave the Alabama offense the ball back a few feet from the goal line and Mark Ingram pushed it in three plays later to get the margin back to 10.

When they got the ball back with 2:01 remaining, Texas apparently didn’t think the 10-point margin meant the game was over. They were throwing the ball, hoping for another quick score. Instead, they gave up another interception, giving Alabama the ball back inside the 30 with 1:48 left.

Texas still had timeouts remaining, so Alabama couldn’t just take a knee and run out the clock. They ran the ball and, combined with a Texas penalty, got the ball on the 5 with 1:41 left. Two runs later, Trent Richardson scored, putting them up by 16 with 47 seconds left.

Surely, this brutality was too much for the Longhorns, who broke down crying and went looking for their mommies?

Not so much.

With 47 seconds left, they kept playing football. They got another nice pass completion but then threw yet another interception with 27 seconds remaining.

Naturally, the evil Saban immediately called for a trick play to get another quick score?

Well, no. With the game in hand, the quarterback took a knee and ran out the clock.

Alabama’s football program is getting spanked yet again by the NCAA,Â ESPN reports.

The NCAA will reveal later Thursday that the Alabama football program must vacate victories from 2005 through 2007 that included players who improperly obtained free textbooks for other students, the Birmingham News is reporting.

Alabama could be forced to vacate as many as 21 wins under the watch of former coach Mike Shula and current coach Nick Saban, sources at the university told ESPN.com’s Mark Schlabach. Citing a source, the News reported the number of wins to be at least 10.

The Crimson Tide will not lose future scholarships, according to the News. The university also will be placed on probation for the second time in the past eight years and ordered to pay a fine, the newspaper reported.

The NCAA alleges the violations began at the start of the 2005 season; the university reported the violations after uncovering them during the ’07 football season, when starting linemen Antoine Caldwell and Marlon Davis, running back Glen Coffee and defensive backs Chris Rogers and Marquis Johnson were suspended for four games.

Under NCAA rules, the players would be ruled ineligible from when they first received the “extra benefits” and would have been ineligible until they were suspended and reinstated.

It is not clear which additional sports programs at Alabama are affected. The NCAA’s ruling will be announced in a 3 p.m. ET teleconference.

University officials aren’t permitted to comment until the NCAA releases its findings. The investigation also included athletes in other sports that the university has not disclosed.

Alabama appeared before the Committee on Infractions on Feb. 20 to answer allegations of potentially major violations involving the improper disbursement of textbooks and “failure to adequately monitor” the textbook distribution process for student-athletes.

The violations occurred during the 2005-06 school year and into the fall of 2007. That left the university subject to potentially stiffer penalties as a repeat violator because the football program was placed on probation on Feb. 1, 2002.

The new case also reopens the five-year repeat violator window.

Saban replaced Shula as coach after the 2006 football season and suspended Caldwell, Coffee, Johnson, Rogers and Davis when the university uncovered the violations. The Tide was 5-2 at that point in the 2007 season and their only wins in the next six games came against Tennessee and Colorado in the Independence Bowl.

The sanctions come at a time when Alabama fans were celebrating the program’s return to national prominence. Saban led the Tide to a 12-0 regular-season record and a No. 1 ranking last season, before the team lost to Florida in the Southeastern Conference championship game and to Utah in the Sugar Bowl.

As an Alabama alumnus — I was enrolled when we won our most recent national football title in 1992 — I’m sick over this.Â Just as the program recovered from the last set of sanctions, here we go again.

It sounds like Nick Saban is uninvolved and acted correctly here.Â If there are sanctions beyond losing past games, though, I wouldn’t be at all surprised for him to pull a Franchione and leave for greener pastures.

As an aside, I think retroactive forfeits are silly.Â You can’t change history and it only penalizes fans, not students, athletes, or others responsible.

The University of Alabama Crimson Tide went into the weekend ranked #2, having beaten then-#9 Clemson and then-#4 Georgia on the road thus far this season.Â The #1 ranked team, Oklahoma, got beaten by #5 Texas.Â Â So, Alabama’s #1, right?

Not so fast.

Texas leapfrogged five spots to take the #1 spot in both the AP and USA Today polls.

It’s a travesty.

Look, Texas could well be the best team in the country.Â Then again, there was a strong argument to be made that Alabama was that two weeks ago when it pummeled Georgia in the dogpound.Â It’s simply a joke, though, for them not to move up while being undefeated, having beaten two top ten teams, and playing in the top football conference in the land.

Gentry Estes says the Tide may be better off at #2, which I find rather dubious.Â He’s right, though, that “At this point, there is no way Alabama could win out and not find itself in the BCS title game.”

There’s still a lot of football to play.Â Alabama hasn’t been ranked #1 during the regular season since 1980.Â They won the 1992-93 national championship by going in as the #2 team and whomping then-#1 Miami and the Heisman Trophy winner Gino Torreta.Â Â But they deserved the top spot given their performance this year so far.

Explain to me how Missouri, who hasn’t played anybody of note, is ranked #3 and ahead of Alabama, Penn State, and Texas?

Missouri has beaten, in succession, Illinois, Missouri Southeastern, Nevada, and Buffalo.Â Frankly, if they cancelled the football programs at those last three schools, nobody would notice.Â It’s been a complete joke of a schedule thus far and Missouri’s not exactly a storied program.

Alabama, on the other hand, opened the season in a neutral site game against Clemson, then ranked in the top 10, and just went in to Athens and destroyed then-3rd ranked Georgia on their home field.Â I can understand putting Oklahoma, also a storied program who plays against tough competition, ahead of Alabama, who has come off a bad season.Â But Missouri?!